John Lee Hooker is living ‘em and, of course, playing ‘em

Friday, March 21, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

John Lee Hooker, father of the Delta blues, turns 80 this year and sounds none the worse for wear despite a dose of arthritis and recent prostate surgery.

He has a new CD, "Don't Look Back," that reaffirms his status as the pre-eminent spinner of what the man himself calls the "real, real deep blues."

"I'm in the old-man blues," Hooker says by phone from San Francisco, where he's been semi-retired in recent years. "I'm in that deep. Don't get much deeper these days."

Most of the deep blues singers like himself have either departed this mortal coil or remade themselves, he says.

"I'm still lookin' for them (today). Robert Cray's good, but he ain't really blues. He's contemporary. B.B. (King), he's a deep blues singer, but he don't do that anymore. He's a big-band singer, but he can do it when he want to."

At this advanced station in life, Hooker has finally reached the financial position where he's able to pick and choose his dates, such as Saturday's at the Hard Rock's Joint. These days, they're few and far between, and mostly on the West Coast.

"I don't need the money anymore, which is a good position to be in," he says.

"Don't Look Back" is notable not only for Hooker's gut-bucket vocals and twangy electric guitar, but four tracks with Van Morrison, a frequent collaborator.

"We have a lot of love and respect for each other," he says of Morrison, who first collaborated with Hooker in 1972 on "Never Get Out of These Blues Alive" and again in 1989 on "Van Morrison: The Concert."

They also performed on the Morrison albums "Mr. Lucky" and "Chill Out."

"We're good buddies," Hooker says. "He calls me all the time to see how I'm doing. I say, 'I'm an old man, but I'm still hanging in there, Van.'"

Hooker's voice doesn't have quite the bite it once did, but the soul behind it is beyond dispute.

"I'm not a screamer, but I've got a little bit more left," he says. "My love for the music is still there -- and that will always be there until the day that I go."

Hooker and the Coast to Coast Blues Band with be joined at 8 p.m. Saturday by John Earl & The Boogieman Band and Alvin Youngblood Hart. Tickets are $35, $30 and $25 at the Hard Rock box office, 693-5066.